House GOP plows ahead with its own plan to cut spending after Biden rejects negotiations
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House Republicans will forge ahead with their own plan to cut federal spending over the next several weeks after President Biden again rejected the idea of negotiating cuts with the GOP in the context of a broader deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Biden made it clear last week he has no interest in negotiating with House Republicans. When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., warned that Biden needs to come to the table and address the two issues together, the White House dismissed that idea and said it’s up to Congress to pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase.
Instead of taking the White House’s advice, House GOP lawmakers will focus on passing the 12 annual spending bills that keep the federal government running and will push for spending cuts as those bills are considered through the regular order of work in committee, one GOP aide said.
“The real work is done by the [appropriations] process,” the aide said.
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The aide added that the process would likely start in May and that Republicans are hoping that work feeds into talks with the president about spending and the debt ceiling that they still hope can take place.
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“[I]f we can … enact some cuts in there, we can say these are the things that we want to prioritize in this negotiating process,” the aide said. The aide added that the idea is to firm up the GOP position through the regular work of the Congress to show where sentiment lies in the House.
“So the idea is that we can negotiate something with him and obviously with ourselves too, and our appropriations bills can be part of that negotiating factor,” the aide said.
That source and an additional senior GOP aide suggested to Fox News Digital that the onus will be on the White House and the Senate’s Democratic majority to either accept the GOP cuts in return for the GOP’s agreement to raise the debt limit or do nothing and risk a default. Republicans think the blame will increasingly fall on Biden if the House is passing spending bills through the normal process of committee work while Biden and Senate Democrats stand on the sidelines, the first aide explained.
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“So that’s where that discussion is,” that aide said. “He’s going to have to do it, or he’s going to be responsible for a default himself for not sitting down and doing what you have to do in a divided government, which is work across the political branches.”
The second aide pointed to outside factors that the GOP will hope to put an additional squeeze on Biden.
“Essentially, our plan is going to be keep asking for meetings, keep talking with the White House,” the aide said. “And then, obviously, as things go along with summer gas prices are going to be increased … I think the American people would be like, ‘The president needs to cut spending because inflation is killing us.’ And that’s when we start getting the tide on our side.”
Democrats have complained for weeks now that Republicans have yet to put forward a budget plan as President Biden did and that the GOP needs to show Americans what they want to do on spending. The first GOP aide said that budget process would continue but said it would be equally important to start passing spending bills in the spring and summer, which would show Democrats exactly where the House stands.
The second GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital suggested that some Republicans continue to push for cuts that take spending to “pre-COVID” levels, or those seen in 2019.
The White House infuriated Republicans last week when it suggested Biden would not get into a back and forth with the GOP on spending cuts and that the House should instead raise the debt ceiling without any conditions. After his latest call for talks, McCarthy said, “I don’t know what more I can do.”
Rep. Kevin Hern, the leader of the Republican Study Committee, said “Republicans are ready to negotiate” and slammed the White House for refusing to engage in talks about federal financing.
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“The White House would rather take their fake infrastructure bill on a road show than talk about something real. Biden’s trying to run out the clock, putting partisan games ahead of the security of our nation,” Hern said. “It’s shameful, truly shameful.”
Budget Committee member Rep. Ben Cline ripped the White House response and called for “cooler heads” to prevail in the debt limit fight.
“It’s irresponsible for the president of the United States to stomp his feet like a spoiled child and say he’s not going to come to the negotiating table on the debt limit,” Cline told Fox News Digital. “Speaker McCarthy is the adult in the room who recognizes that our system is built on negotiation and compromise, and I’m hopeful that reasonable minds will prevail and the president will come to the negotiating table on this critical issue.”